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Naive beginner question:

This tree is about ten years old, and I'm curious if it would work as a bonsai tree? It's about 5ft high in a pot, with a trunk diameter of an inch.

If it is a good tree to bonsai, curious if you could advise next steps? Thank you!! - Danny

pictures here

Oh! That looks splendid! Yes, that would definitely make a good bonsai. It may be too tall, you need to shorten the apex, lots of shoots.

If you already have it, it's worth turning it into a bonsai. But if you're at a nursery and going to buy that, I wouldn't.

Its hard if not possible to see if the tree id grafted or not. I would stay away from grafted trees. While it is possible to air layer the top that pose a risk and is not advicable to beginners.

Other than that, this is a material for a maximum 20 cm high tree, possibly just 10 cm as it is. If you want a bigger bonsai there will be many years of growing before you can start to train it.

Thank you! I'm going to start researching Air Layering now that I know this specific tree could work. It's not grafted, it showed up as a volunteer in this pot from a nearby maple tree.

As a starting point, should I just cut the tree right above the base and then wait for new growth to appear?

Looks good to me! Hopefully you become successful.

bottlerockets wrote: Thank you! I'm going to start researching Air Layering now that I know this specific tree could work. It's not grafted, it showed up as a volunteer in this pot from a nearby maple tree.

As a starting point, should I just cut the tree right above the base and then wait for new growth to appear?

If you want to air layer, just cutting everything off is not the right way to go. Air layer in late winter and cut off the layer as soon as good roots is developed.

If you dont want to air layer that is how it is done. Excactly where to cut depends on your final design and size. For big bonsai tree it is better to let grow whithout cutting it down. The tree needs foliage to thicken the trunk.

I am not sure why people are excited. This plant has not much going for it in terms of bonsai.

Naturally, any tree of a suitable species can be grown into bonsai, given enough time. The question is, where do you see this going, and what is your development horizon.

check this out:

Dude, sorry to revive this, but I'll tell you why people might be excited:

1) Tree looks healthy and has been growing freely... And that goes pretty much with most of the recommendations on this forum, which is "let the tree grow for a year or two and then you can think about it". So you can skip this step for now.

2) Tree seems to have a thick trunk, 1 inch is a good starting point.

3) It's a Maple, well known to be really suitable for bonsai, and a very traditional specie.

4) It has a lot of air layering material, to start other trees with a good thickness already, which would be hard prunned anyways...